NASA EXPERIENCE: Noguchi reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. He participated in the basic training course for Russian manned space systems at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia in 1998. He then continued MS advanced training at JSC and was also assigned technical duties to support the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) development tests. In April 2001, he was assigned to the crew of STS-114. He flew on STS-114 Discovery (July 26-August 9, 2005) and has logged over 333 hours in space, including over 20 EVA hours. Noguchi is assigned to the Expedition 20 International Space Station mission, scheduled to launch on a Soyuz spacecraft in November 2009. He will join the Expedition 20 mission in progress and will serve a 6-month tour of duty as a flight engineer. He currently serves as a back-up Expedition 18 crew member.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-114 Discovery (July 26-August 9, 2005) was the Return to Flight mission during which the Shuttle docked with the International Space Station and the crew tested and evaluated new procedures for flight safety and Shuttle inspection and repair techniques. Noguchi served as MS-1 and EV-1 and performed 3 EVAs (spacewalks) totaling 20 hours and 5 minutes. After a 2-week, 5.8 million mile journey in space, the orbiter and its crew of seven astronauts returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California.